ban on large, sugary drinks for streetcars and movie theaters. fruit juices, milk shakes and alcohol are exempt. maybe we need more bans to stay you are looking at the middle east on the edge right now. these are the streets of cairo. not far from the u.s. embassy where the crisis is getting worse tonight. another night of protest after a day that saw hundreds of injuries among police and protesters. i am wolf blitzer in for piers morgan. demonstrations across the region from iran and iraq to gaza, to yemen, to libya and morocco, a wave of anti-american anger that has cost the lives of ambassador chris stevens and three other americans, two of them former u.s. navy s.e.a.l.s. meanwhile, president obama spoke out about all of this on the campaign trail today.

people around the world, i want people to hear me, to all those who would do us harm, no act of terror will go unpunished. it will not dim the light of the values that we proudly present to the rest of the world. no act of violence shakes the resolve of the united states of america. >> secretary of state, hillary clinton, tonight paid tribute to the two security personnel killed alongside ambassador chris stevens. tyrone wood and glen dougherty. she said, this violence should shock people of all faiths and traditions. people of conscience and good will every we are must stand together against violence, hate and division. we have two reporters covering this story for us. arwa damon is in tripoli.

ben wedeman is in cairo. let me go to arwa. you are in benghazi for us right now. what's the scene like there? >> well, everyone we have been speaking to and i literally just landed here two hours ago, is incredibly distraught of what took place. they are in utter shock and want to make clear how anguished they are over what transpired. they want the world to know, this is not libya or an action that was supported by the vast majority of libyans. this most certainly is not why they want revolution. many of them reiterated against the fact that they expect them to the united states to nato for their aid. that being said, all of them want to see their government disarm with these gangs that are roaming about with basically pure impunity. some of these gangs are remnants of the revolutionary forces that

were established during the fighting that took place that has been robust to lay down their weapons for a variety of reasons. some are more extremists and they emerge from these evolution nary forces. this brings to light the sinister -- but outside of the authority of the government itself. the realization here very much that this is not the path they want the nation to go on, the government must prove itself to the people by bringing these individuals to justice, by taking these weapons off the street but, again, wolf, not a lot of space at this point that the government is going to be able to accomplish that. >> arwa damon on the scene for for in benghazi. please be careful over there. ben wedeman is in cairo right now. they are getting ready for friday morning prayers. ben, set the scene for us. what's going on right now? >> reporter: well, it is 3:00 in the morning here, wolf.

the clashes continue between the protesters outside the american embassy. at this point, they are about 300 yards away from the embassy kept at bay by the egyptian security forces. it appears that this is going to go on all night. now, of course, friday after prayers, the muslim brotherhood is organizing nationwide protests. they are stressing that those protests will be peaceful and away from the u.s. embassy, away from tahrir square. it is difficult to really be assured that the protests will not continue outside the embassy and grow larger, given that it is friday. given that it is the weekend. after the friday prayers. so we can, i think, continue to see more of this and probably tomorrow the protests will be larger and the brotherhood will be challenged to try to keep them away from the embassy, away

from this flash point area in the center of cairo. wolf? >> i am really worried about those american diplomates and other personnel working ott at that u.s. embassy. ben, please be careful as well. the turmoil in the middle east has put the focus on the middle east, joining us, mitt romney's senior adviser. i couldn't help but notice the tone of mitt romney today in terms of his criticism of the administration of the president, much more muted than it was yesterday. a deliberate shift? >> i think his overall critique is the same. there as been a lot of uncertainty and mixed messages sent throughout the region. the region is in the midst of turmoil. awful news about the other americans that were killed in the last 24 hours. and, you know, you look at where iran is headed with the nuclear program, syria up in flames. you look at what's happening in tunisia, morocco, egypt, libya.

>> i thought today mitt romney thought because of this escalating violence and the potential, approaching friday morning prayers in the muslim world. it is not a good time necessarily to hammer away as he did the day before. >> he had a very specific criticism, which was he was strongly critical of the statement that was put out by the administration, via the administration. >> after the administration withdrew that statement, why did he have to double down the next morning after we knew the american ambassador and three other americans were killed? >> at the time the initial statement went out, we knew there had been violence. the embassy in cairo had reissued the statement via social networks. it was still a point of disagreement. >> the white house had distanced themselves by the next day from the cairo embassy statement. he was disavowing the statement too. he was getting a lot of criticism. i think it was fair to point out there were major differences

between the administration and governor romney on our overall approach at the middle east, which was the nub of his criticism. >> do you have any criticism of the way the president has behaved, reacted since this crisis and the killing of the american ambassador has unfolded. deploying naval ships to libya and the statements he has made. >> you have to take a step back. we can get bogged down in the minute to minute developments and take a step back and say, what's going on in the region and how did it happen? over the last few years, president obama has reached out to the region and thought he was going to make all the extremists fall in love with him and be charmed by him and his presidency. we have sent mixed messages in terms of how we deploy our power, our influence. the message we send to friends and allies. our allies think we are a little less reliable. our adversaries think we should be tested. what we have seen in the last three days is a product of policies that have been building over the last three years. that basic criticism is still intact.

>> we did see that mitt romney stepped back today from that. yesterday, he didn't. the question is, was that a mistake? >> wolf, he made a criticism about a statement that came out of the u.s. embassy in cairo. the white house eventually criticized that statement. they disavowed that statement as well. so the idea he was under some sort of fair criticism is unfair. he disavowed a statement. the white house disavowed a statement. ultimately, one could argue on that particular issue, they were ultimately on the same page. >> the argument is that at a time of national crisis and this is a crisis that could escalate in the region, maybe it is better to put politics aside a little bit, as ronald reagan used to do. >> first of all, this is a national crisis. we need to speak together with one another and try to come up with solutions about how to deal with this crisis. it is a real crisis. the idea that we can not have a national conversation about differences.

just last week at the democratic convention, there were whole prime time addresses dedicated to criticizing governor romney for things he said about foreign policy while our fighting men and women are fighting in after dwan stan. the same was true in the 2008 election when our men and women were fighting in iraq. there were criticisms made in the context of the can tame. one could understand in the context of a presidential campaign when we are dealing with weighty national issues, we should be able to have a discussion. >> there will be one focused on foreign policy as you well know. does mitt romney support continuing more than $1 billion a year in military and economic assistance to egypt? >> much more. it is over $1 billion in military aide and then a quarter of a billion in military aide he believes we should take a close look at conditioning that aide based on egypt being a responsible player in the region. what does that mean? is it maintaining its commitments and its peace treat with israel? is it protecting minority rights

in egypt? is it being supportive of democratic institutions and institutions of civil society? is it being a constructive actor in the region? there are big questions on all those fronts as it relates to egypt since president morsi has taken over. he believes that our aid to egypt should be conditioned on answers to those questions. >> a new poll shows when it comes to foreign policy, president obama gets 54% and romney gets 42%. you are a foreign policy to mitt romney. he is not doing so well. >> this is not about polls or politics. there are clear differences between barack obama and mitt romney on a range of national security and foreign policy issues. governor romney feels strongly about it. he believes that america's position in the world weaker today than january of 2009. if you look at events over the last few days, they il lut straight how much day os there is in themile east and the world the government is going to have a discussion with the president. >> romney will get classified

national security briefings from the administration starting next week. >> i am not going to comment on the briefings. it is a tradition for the nominees, the vice presidential and presidential nominees to receive classified briefings. >> once they are the official nominees. when i met with mitt romney in jerusalem, he told me he was looking forward to getting those briefings. president obama took a stern note out on the campaign trail today. >> we see on our televisions that there are still threats to the world -- in the world. we have to remain vigilant. we have to be relentless in pursuing those that attacked us. as long as i am commander in chief, we will stain the strongest military the world has known. >> tim roamer, a former policy adviser to the campaign and a member of congress formerly from india.

mr. ambassador, thanks for coming in. >> nice to see you. thanks for having me back. >> good to have you here. i want you to respond to what mitt romney told george is stephanopoulous today. he was reacting to the criticism he received from president obama. >> what i said was exactly the same conclusion the white house reached, which was that the statement was inappropriate. that's why they backed away from it as well. >> they didn't say it was showing sympathy for the attackers. >> i think it was not directly applicable and appropriate for the setting. i think it should have been taken down. apparently, the white house felt the same way. >> no direct response when the president says, you shoot first and aim later. >> this is politics. i am not going to worry about the campaign. >> you accept his explanation of why he initially criticized the obama administration? >> well, wolf, look, you wish that for 24 hours or 48 hours, people wouldn't seize on politics, that there would be a moment for prayer, reflection, strong action by the commander

in chief and america comes together, rather than looking at polling numbers and trying to seize an opportunity. we didn't do that after 9/11. we didn't point fingers at a mayor or president. we came together in unity. you can score political points two or three days later. it shouldn't be bouncing on things in today's environment, whether you are a republican or democrat, let's be unified as americans. >> national security is a huge issue out there. this is a presidential race. you want to make sure the commander in chief, whether it is president obama or mitt romney, is qualified. what's wrong with candidates arguing over national security? >> i don't think there is a problem with arguing about national security. we are going to have presidential debates. there is a time to talk about national security. i think what the last 48 hours has shown, wolf, is that primarily, i come from the midwest. primarily, this election is going to be about jobs. but i think it is also going to

be about judgment. it is going to be the judgment of the commander in chief. i think the last of three years, the president has been steady, decisive and strong. i think the last 48 hours have not shown these kind of qualities from governor romney. >> you listen to dan senor, this president has not been decisive, has not been strong. the argument being that u.s. national security interests, especially in the middle east have been undermined because of his alleged weakness. >> let's look at the facts. we will hear that in campaigns. the president said in a debate and he was roundly criticized for it in 2008 that if he had a chance to get osama bin laden, even if he found him in another country in pakistan, he would seize that opportunity. >> one final question. you can clarify it for us. yesterday, the president said egypt is not an ally of the united states. today, the state department said, egypt is an ally, a major

non-nato ally of the united states. who is right, the president or the state department? >> the president, i know, feels that egypt is a partner. he talked, in fact, to president mosri today. egypt needs to be abiding by their treaty with israel and respecting that treaty. i am sure the president talked about the parameters that egypt needs to show to move towards democracy and reflect human rights, to better protect our embassy and cairo and come through with a local police force and troops that will protect our people there. >> as far as i know --

>> he is having talks with leaders all over the world as commander in chief to try to make sure our people are protected overseas. >> as far as the state department is concerned, egypt still has that major non-nato ally status, this new government as well. at least the state department. you are a former ambassador. you know the specific designation. israel has that status, australia. i don't know about india. >> as a former ambassador and congressman. i know congress is going to try to weigh in on this too. with $1.6 billion in aid pending, they are going to say, should we suspend parts of it, or withhold parts of it? are they going to abide by their treaty with israel and show real legitimate interest in protecting our embassy. >> the obama and romney campaign agree. >> there are areas of agreement. >> there are areas republicans and democrats can and should work together. >> pleasure, wolf. always great to see you. >> anti-american protests today reaching as far as iraq. is it a sign of more to come? i will speak with that and more with paul bremer, president

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we condemn the violence that has resulted in the strongest terms and we greatly appreciate that many muslims in the united states and around the world have spoken out on this issue. >> secretary of state, hillary clinton, speaking earlier in the day. certainly, the unrest in the middle east continuing in cairo even as we speak spreading as far as iraq where hundreds of angry protesters flooded the streets today. join us now as paul bremer, the former top u.s. official in iraq. mr. ambassador, thanks for coming in. >> thanks, wolf. >> how worried are you -- starting back in 2003. >> let me say first of all that i send my condolences to my colleagues that served and died

in libya and americans tend to forget that there are american diplomates putting their lives on the line all over the world every day. i think we should be concerned. what we are seeing now is the spread that started in two countries. today, it moved to three or four more, including iraq, which is quite a ways from north africa. that spread is eerily reminiscent of what we all went through in the late 1970s. >> in iran? >> not just in iran, an ambassador killed in kabul followed by the embassy in islamabad being burned to the ground and the takeover in iran. these things have a way of spreading. they are a mark of the fact that the administration has basically conveyed weakness in this region. weakness always begets trouble. >> what should the administration in your opinion be doing? >> what it should be doing is what they are starting to do now. it took them a while to find their voice. the president in his first rose garden speak said nothing about the attack in egypt. there seems to still be confusion in the administration as to what exactly our relationship with egypt is.

the key problem is that the people who are opposed to us are islamic extremists. the administration seems to be having its trouble finding its voice to recognize this reality. >> the administration, president obama has approved not only the killing of bin laden, which was a decisive act, as you well know but more drone attacks, these targeted killings of suspected terrorists out there whether in pakistan, afghanistan, yemen and elsewhere, that all of the bush administration combined. isn't that a decisive act? >> yes, but very restricted and very targeted. zt the problem is weakness towards states. >> the economic sanctions and the diplomatic sanctions are really -- the people in iran are really feeling these economic sanctions. we are trying to persuade one person ayatollah mamani to stop his program, which he hasn't. we are not doing them to hurt the iranian people. we are doing them to stop the

international atomic energy -- >> the covert operations against iran. they have been pretty decisive. >> they have not stopped the nuclear --

it was always going to be difficult. it was never going to be -- now, the dictators are gone and now we have the bright light of democracy there. one of the things this shows, particularly in libya, is how unresolved the consequences of the arab spring still are. there is a lot of work still to be done. arguably, the u.s. steak in egypt is more important than in libya. >> i agree. it is. >> nice to be with you again. many could go up, what the anti-american fervor in the middle east could mean for the race for the white house. is this a turning point in the campaign? stay with us. those surprising little things she does

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we have heavy hearts across america today. things are going to get a lot better. i also recognize right now we are in mourning. we have lost four of our diplomates across the world where we are thinking about their families and those that they have left behind. what a tragedy.

>> a somewhat subdued mitt romney on the campaign trail today that after he drew some heated criticism for blasting president obama in the wake of the deaths of the u.s. ambassador, chris stevens in libya and three other americans as well. is this a turning point in the campaign? joining us douglas brinkly and gloria borger. clearly, gloria, a change in tone today as opposed to yesterday. how important is this for mitt romney? >> this is an important moment for mitt romney. i still believe this election is going to be about the economy, wolf. it is not going to be about foreign policy. i think that there are lots of republicans also, including democrats, that believe that mitt romney was too quick to speak, too quick to criticize. he criticized a statement that was issued by the state department and the embassy, not by president obama and took that

as president obama apologizing. people say, you know what, he should have waited a little bit. i think it gave the president an opening to use against him. by the way, there is a real issue of our policy post arab spring, particularly with egypt. what mitt romney did was create political show when he could have taken a serious issue to president obama and will do in the future. >> that was issued by one official at the u.s. embassy in cairo that was quickly disavowed. >> doug, how common is it for the challenger, the nonincumbent, the candidate, to be this aggressive in reacting to a foreign policy issue like mitt romney did this week? >> i think it is really quite unique. it tells we are living in this speed age of twitter feeds every minute, that you constantly want to respond. you don't want to get behind the new cycle and some mitt romney clearly spoke too soon. his comments seem very churlish.

it hasn't been very well received. he has -- mitt romney now has a foreign policy deficit. he bungled going to london at the time of the. >> larry: he is going to have a chance in one of the debates to focus completely on foreign policy. if i were the romney campaign, i would start surrounding him by some foreign policy adults. they have a great talent on the gop side of veterans like james baker, robert gates, people to consult and be seen with. they should be getting op eds out there about what romney foreign policy is. right now, it seems quite incoherent, except he is a hostage of the right wing. anybody obama does is wrong. he overstepped the bounds in my opinion when he the president seemed to be siding with the terrorists. >> are they expressing any

regret with this? >> they are not. they believe they are being criticized for criticizing exactly the same thing that president obama ended up disavowing. what it makes it look like is that they are trying to pick a fight here with president obama on foreign policy. and that they were looking for something and this was out there and they did it and they acted too quickly. >> in these elections, as you know, doug, we often hear about it in october. right now, this is sort of a september surprise. is this likely to have a huge impact come november 6th? >> well, you toe, wolf, imagine if barack obama had not gotten osama bin laden and gadhafi. the killing of those two

terrorists gives him a kind of foreign policy credential is obama's egyptian policy working? egypt is a great friend. anwar sadat has been our great friend. as cnn is reporting so well, this is an ongoing story. we don't know what is going to be happening tomorrow. it is a scary situation, not just in libya or egypt but places like yemen. >> as jimmy carter learned in the 1980 race against ronald reagan, gloria, you well remember, the escalating violence in iran and elsewhere eventually hurt him badly. >> of course. that's the real problem. there is a real legislative issue on the table. we have negotiated a billion

dollar loan forgiveness for egypt and congress could decide to veto that at some point. that could become an escalating issue for the president. >> gloria, thanks very much. doug brinkly, thanks to you as well. the fallout from the anti-islam movie, questions of freedom of speech and what it means around the world.

there are new questions about the film that triggered the outrage in the arab world and the controversial decision to sensor it and take it down in youtube. joining us, jeff, let's start with you. censorship is an important issue. here is a statement that was put out from youtube. we work hard to create a community everyone can enjoy and which enables people to express different opinions. this can be a challenge. what's okay in one skunt tri can be offensive elsewhere. this video, which is widely available in the web and is clearly within our guidelines.

it will stay on youtube. given the very difficult situation in libya and egypt, we have temporarily restricted access in both countries. our hearts are with the families of the people murdered in tuesday's attack in libya. jeff, what do you think about this? >> i understand google's position and why they did this. they set themselves a terrible precedent. we can not live in ray society where anything that has to offend anybody can be taken down. google cannot put themselves in a position to cleanse the society for our protection. the basic truth is that this video is cheesy, horrible, stupid product of trolls. it was then exploited by murdererous trolls who wanted to do this. we have to get in the position where we stop paying attention to this jung. >> i think you should at least link to it on youtube. we on the internet have learned that you don't feel the trolls. trolls are people who come on and intend to cause difficulty and get a rise out of you.

people in the middle east were looking for an excuse to do the same. we become dupes of that process. the more we are feeding this process of the trolls and the trolls. there are those in the world that think you should control speech. we in america don't believe that. we believe in free speech, good speech and noxious speech. i don't want to see us in a position where we think it should be controlled. did mitt romney make a big mistake when he called out the president over the initial statement?

i am not sure he made a huge mistake. a lot of the folks in both parties thought it was a mistake to make a statement before the facts were clear. he made a statement from this tweet to the cairo administration that the administration then said was a mistake and it was then deleted referring to the death of a consulate official. we didn't know the ambassador had been killed. i think people were surprised he jumped out like that. >> what do you think, rick? >> what do you think? it was not necessarily a mistake, right? ben called it jumping out. the simple fact is that the cairo embassy issued a statement not approved by hillary clinton. she looked at the statement and said, no, this is a weak statement. it should not go out. it went out anyway. fifteen hours later, mitt romney decides this violence is

escalating. it is getting out of hand. he says something. the press of the united states, president obama, doesn't say anything for 15 hours. when he does say something, his first words are to chastise mitt romney. i don't think you should be characterizing this as jumping out in front. >> i think it is sort of odd that you are blaming and saying this statement from the cairo embassy was the fault of the president of the united states but not the fault of the secretary of state. i understand there is this thing of positioning hillary clinton against president obama. >> that's not what i am saying. first of all, if you are the president of the united states, you have to own up to the fact of escalating and developing violence. for 15 hours, nothing is being said. i think that we are missing one

point here. when the white house is silent, that's a weak message. silence and a lack of a message is really a problem. >> some people may think that mitt romney jumped out after 15 hours. i actually think that we should have an american president who absolutely sees developing problems and says, i am going to enter the situation and try to calm it down. i don't think it is too much wolf, to say, if the president of the united states would have jumped in early and said something -- >> rick, how would he calm it down? you use the bully pulpit. by asking that question, there is a sense in that question that the american presidency doesn't have power or the white house doesn't have power. >> i just said i think we should be paying less attention to these kind of behaviors and activities. at the same time, you are saying that the president's silence increased the violence. what is he going to say? don't make people angry. i don't understand what you are suggesting he should have done. >> let me be clear. first of all, i agree with you

that some stupid movie should not be an issue. if you look at what aljazir is saying in the region, they are saying this movie had nothing to do with this violence. to answer your question, the president of the united states can immediately come out and call upon the egyptian government to calm the situation down, call on the pro he testers to remember a variety of different points. you find a way to utilize the bully pulpit faster 15 hours later. >> if only rick were romney's spokesman. i think what rick said just now made a lot of since. it isn't exactly what romney said. >> hold on for one moment. we are going to continue this conversation. the candidates are neck in neck in several swing states. when we come back, we will talk about whether or not what has happened in the last 48 hours will change any of that. stay with us. this country was built by working people.

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i'm back with rick renal, ben jarvis and rick smith. are the republicans having an impact of accusing the president of having a weak foreign policy? >> yeah, i think certainly the fact that there -- there are riots around u.s. embassies in

four countries, including in ones where barack obama reluctantly or very jubilantly supported the revolution, is a real foreign policy debate republicans are trying to have. to some extent, where they are leaning, who lost egypt, who lost libya, and the problem, it will only go so far. neither party will advocate for american intervention, because that's so unpopular right now. >> rick, if you look at the polls, southeast especially since both conventions, especially since democratic convention there, is clearly a bounce for obama polls that nbc news and "wall street journal" came out today. three critical battleground states. in ohio, obama 50%, romney, 43%. look at this. virginia, 49% for obama. 44% for romney. that's florida. but same in virginia. 49/44. three battleground states.

romney needs these three states if he's going to be elected. how worried are you right now that he's just not doing well? >> well, i think if you believe the polls, you would be worried, and certainly we have work to do. we've got a long way to go. but i think the lesson here, if you get the policy right, the politics will follow. let me give you an example. when barack obama decided that we were going to go in and help the french and nato to do something about libya the saying goes, if you break it, you own it. and i was talking to some folks today inside the state department and they told me that the security firm, it's called academy, the formally known firm of blackwater. academy was actually set to go in and provide security for the ambassador in libya. they have been waiting. they've done some preliminary evaluations, but for two months, they have been waiting while the state department decides to get

the paperwork right. so we really got to look i think at the security situation in libya, what's going on in egypt, what has the obama administration been doing to get the policy right. because once you get the policy right, i think the politics will follow. >> let me bring jeff in. what grade would you give what we call the mainstream media on the way we've handled the past 48 hours or so, this crisis that's exploding in egypt, in libya, yemen now, maybe other countries? >> i think we've just proven we cannot resist getting back to the horse race, eh? that's where we end up. there's been a lot of rushing to try to figure out what's really going on here with the video. but i come back to this idea what we're seeing is, and hillary clinton said it, a small and savage bunch, causing this in countries and john mccain has perhaps sounded the most presidential of anybody, talking about not abandoning the arab bring, not taking the moment if it's a loss or very difficult

fight toward democracy. >> as you know, ben, a lot of americans, especially increasing numbers of congress, democrats and republicans, would rather deal with the problems at home. that's an issue out there. >> absolutely. i think president obama, when he said egypt -- he said it in an offhand way, egypt is not an ally, makes it harder to give them a billion in aid. >> it's a nonmajor ali of the states. if romney would have said that, would there be a lot more criticism in screwing up an answer? >> yes, i think so. it is what it is. hillary clinton, coming to save the gay, where vickphoria newland came out and said, no, mr. president, egypt is our ally and had to correct the president. we have a white house that's

very new, doesn't have a strategy and we're seeing the effects in the middle east right now. >> thank you, guys, for joining us. >> thank you. coming up, the very latest on another day of violence in the middle east. now fresh protests under way in cairo. we'll have all of the details. stay with us. up. a short word that's a tall order. up your game. up the ante. and if you stumble, you get back up. up isn't easy, and we ought to know. we're in the business of up. everyday delta flies a quarter of million people while investing billions improving everything from booking to baggage claim. we're raising the bar on flying and tomorrow we will up it yet again.

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police and protesters in cairo. a dangerous, intense scene in cairo, playing out day after day. right now, it appears the crisis is growing worse. the violence that began tuesday with the killing of the u.s. ambassador, chris stevens and three others in benghazi spread ing to iran, iraq, gaza, and more akio. stay with us for the latest developments in this unfolding and very dramatic situation. that's all for us tonight. because of all of the breaking news in the middle east, the special program with tony robins that was supposed to air this